La La Land

Whether you’re singing in the rain or just enjoying another day of sun, our new Spotify playlist is filled with musical delights.

The JUMPCUT team have come together to share some of their favourite musical hits from films such as La La Land, Mamma Mia, Sing Street, Grease and lots more!

As with all our playlists, we’ll be constantly adding new songs in when recommended, so please feel free to tell us what songs you’d like to see in this playlist over on Twitter or in the comments below and we’ll pop them in when we can!

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As we prepare for our annual award show, The Odysseys, we asked our wonderful team to list their top 10 films of 2017 and we’ve created the JUMPCUT Top 10 list based on their input. The votes were nail bitingly close, and there’s been plenty of discussion this year amongst the team!

You may recall that last year we posted up our ‘Top 10 Most Anticipated Films Of 2017‘, which featured the likes of ‘Wonder Woman’, ‘Logan’, ‘Dunkirk’, and at the #1 spot was ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’, and whilst appearing on some of our team’s personal Top 10 lists, did it make it onto our Top 10 of the year?

Just missing out out making our ultimate top 10 are the following honorable mentions:

One of a number of adaptations of Stephen Kings work to grace a screen this year, ‘IT’ made a record breaking entry to the box office by more than doubling the record takings for a horror film’s opening weekend. Bill Skårsgard’s performance as Pennywise the Dancing Clown is not one that’ll leave your nightmares any time soon. With the film arriving on home release shortly, we highly recommend taking Pennywise home with you!

Taylor Sheridan’s directorial debut was nothing short of heart racing. Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen ditched their MCU costumes for something a little warmer as they investigate the death of a young girl in Wyoming, on the Wind River Indian Reservation. The investigation leaves the audience guessing right up until the third act, and when the truth hits it doesn’t pull it’s punches.

If a couple of years ago you’d have told us that a Thor film would end up our ‘Top 10’ of the year least, you’d forgive us for not believing you. Whilst the first two instalments of his solo outings are rather lacklustre and dreary, in comes Taiki Waititi to shake things up and deliver one of the best entries to the MCU to date. With lots of colour, humour, and a dash kiwi charm, Waititi left his mark all over the God of Thunder – as well as introducing us to everyone’s instant new favourite, Korg, who is played by Waititi.

‘The Last Jedi’ topped our list last year for most anticipated movie of 2017 and boy did we have a wait on our hands. Now it’s been released worldwide, the latest entry to the ‘Star Wars’ franchise has divided many fans on it’s approach to some of the characters and it’s plot. It’s fair to say that our team, which consists of a number of huge ‘Star Wars’ fans, had quite a bit to say on this film (in a pleasant, civilised, and GIF-happy manner might we add) and it may actually come as a surprise to some of them that it made our list!

If the toe-tappingly catchy and action filled trailers weren’t enough to get you to see Edgar Wright’s ‘Baby Driver’ in the cinema, then we sure hope you’ve corrected your mistake and watched it since it’s home release following it’s wave of praise online. Not only is the film insanely brilliant, the soundtrack ain’t half bad either.

The UK started the new year hearing nothing but praise for ‘La La Land’. The U.S theatrical release date was in December, whilst we had to twiddle our thumbs and wait here in the UK until the following month. By the time it was released, it had already won a jaw-dropping amount of awards and was also in the running for a number of Academy Awards, including ‘Best Director’ and ‘Best Film’ (let’s not get into that). 11 months later and the film still sits highly on the top of a lot of our team’s list, and we daren’t tally up how many times we’ve all watched it since!

With a production budget of just $4.5 million, ‘Get Out’ broke records and all expectations when it grossed over $251 million worldwide during it’s run in cinemas. Jordan Peele’s directorial debut was greatly received and is arguably one of the most talked about films of the year. Daniel Kaluuya has received numerous nominations and awards as the lead of the film, and rightly so. Another one we recommend ticking off your list before the year is out!

James Mangold stepped back into the director’s chair to direct another Wolverine solo film, but this time the claws were well and truly out for his R-Rated return. ‘Logan’ showed us Wolverine like we’ve never scene him on screen before. The neo-western take on Hugh Jackman’s final outing as Logan was a perfect send off for the actor and the character, as well as a superb introduction to Dafne Keen as Laura Kinney (aka X-23). ‘Logan’ proved to be an emotional farewell, but also left us with a glimmer of hope that we could potentially see X-23 in her own film in the future.

Christopher Nolan’s latest film was hyped up to no end that some of us were certain our expectations were too high and would never be met. Those doubts were quashed upon viewing the film (numerous times for some of the team) and although the story, told from three perspectives (land, sea, and air), had very little dialogue, the way in which is was shot, and the perfect accompanying score, were enough to keep you on the edge of your seat the whole way through.

Aaaaand if you hadn’t guessed by now – Denis Villeneuve’s neo-noir sci-fi masterpiece ‘Blade Runner 2049’ sits at number one for this year’s list. With some breathtakingly beautiful cinematography and set pieces, an ear-pleasingly gorgeous score, and strong performances from Ryan Gosling, Ana De Armas, Ryan Gosling, and the rest of the supporting case, there was nothing we didn’t love about this film – although unfortunately it appears that the general audience may disagree with us as it didn’t perform all too well at the box office!

There you have it! ‘Blade Runner 2049’ claims the #1 spot this year for us here at JUMPCUT. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this list and what your Top 10 looks like!

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Following it’s success over the awards season, picking up fourteen Academy Award nominations and winning six, and also taking home all seven Golden Globes it was nominated for, it’s been announced that ‘La La Land’ will be doing a small UK tour accompanied by a sixty-piece orchestra and choir.

Many are hoping the tour will announce more dates across the UK soon as I’m sure tickets for the announced showings will sell out pretty quick.

The show will kick off on May 26th at the Hollywood Bowl in Hollywood, where composer Justin Hurwitz, who won two Academy awards last month for his work on ‘La La Land’, will conduct a 100-piece orchestra and choir. From there the tour will visit multiple US cities before making it’s way to countries such as UK, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, and more! Hurwitz has confirmed that the orchestra playing are the same that actually worked on the film.

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Jimmy Kimmel hosted the 89th Academy Awards last night where ‘Moonlight’ won 3 awards, including the biggest prize of the night for ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Supporting Actor’. Director Damien Chazelle not only won an incredible six Oscar wins for ‘La La Land’, but also became the youngest filmmaker to win an Oscar at 32 years old! . ‘Zootopia’ scooped up the award for ‘Best Animated Feature’ and ‘Jungle Book’ walked away with ‘Best Visual Effects’.

Full list of winners:

Best Picture: Moonlight

Best Actress: Emma Stone (La La Land)

Best Actor: Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea)

Best Supporting Actress: Viola Davis (Fences)

Best Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)

Best Director: La La Land – Damien Chazelle

Best Original Screenplay: Manchester by the Sea

Best Adapted Screenplay: Moonlight – Barry Jenkins and Alvin McCraney

Best Original Score: La La Land – Justin Hurwitz

Best Original Song: La La Land – City of Stars

Best Visual Effects: The Jungle Book

Best Cinematography: La La Land

Best Costume Design: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Best Make-Up and Hairstyling: Suicide Squad

Best Film Editing: Hacksaw Ridge

Best Animated Feature: Zootopia

Best Production Design: La La Land

Best Documentary Feature: OJ: Made in America

Best Sound Editing: Arrival

Best Sound Mixing: Hacksaw Ridge

Best Animated Short: Piper

Best Documentary Short: The White Helmets

Best Live Action Short: Sing

Best Foreign Language Film: The Salesman

How many of your Oscar guesses came true? Did any of the winners come as a surprise to you?

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Stephen Fry hosted the 70th British Academy Film Awards in London’s Royal Albet Hall and it’ll come as no surprise to many, ‘La La Land’ waltzed away with 5 BAFTA wins, including ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Direction’, and ‘Best Original Music’.

The latest actor to step into the Spider-Man suit, Tom Holland, won the ‘Rising Star’ award which was voted for by the public. Casey Affleck walked away with ‘Best Leading Actor’ and Viola Davis collected her much deserved award for ‘Best Supporting Actress’. Former ‘Skins’ star, Dev Patel, won ‘Best Supporting Actor’ for his brilliant performance in ‘Lion’and ‘I, Daniel Blake’ took home the prize for ‘Outstanding British Film’.

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Written by Chris Gelderd

Ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to write my first ever article for JumpCut UK, and what better place to start, at this time of the year, than with a Beginners’ Guide to Awards Season.

Now, Hollywood runs to a pretty tight calendar. Spring usually offers up plenty of family-friendly films; Summer is all about the big-budget blockbusters; Autumn gives us the horrors and thrillers, whilst winter signals the start of awards season, when studios battle it out with their carefully selected productions, aiming to surprise and move audiences, with one eye firmly placed on adding some gold statues to their trophy cabinets. There are awards-skeptics who now regard all of this as simply over-the-top, politically and racially motived, Hollywood excess, whilst others can’t wait to delve into the treasures that studios have been saving for this time of year. Lastly, there are those who are new to the whole awards season buzz. If you fit into this category, then hopefully you’ll find this simple guide to be a helpful introduction to the glitz and glamour of awards season.

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This year’s EE BAFTA nominations have been announced this morning via a live Facebook video, which was presented by Sophie Turner and Dominic Cooper.

After it’s record breaking 7 wins at the Golden Globes at the weekend, ‘La La Land’ leads the nominations with a total of 11, followed closely behind by both ‘Arrival’ and ‘Nocturnal Animals’ which each with 9 nods. Also receiving nominations is the likes of ‘I, Daniel Blake’, ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’, and ‘Florence Foster Jenkins’

The nominees for ‘EE Rising Star Award’ were announced last week and the voting is now open to the public on EE’s Website. Check out the nominations below and be sure to vote for your favourite.

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A few surprises in the JumpCutUK writers’ top 10 of 2016

The festive season is over and the new year is here, and with the new year comes plenty of “best films of 2016” lists. Not one to miss out, the team here at JumpCut UK decided to pool together our individual top 10 of the year and create a Writers’ Top 10 of 2016. All of our writers were asked to name their personal top 10 films of the year, and they weren’t given any criteria about what kinds of film to choose (i.e they didn’t necessarily have to be films that would get film lecturers excited).

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Last night, Jimmy Fallon hosted the 74th Golden Globe Awards at the Beverley Hilton in California and unsurprisingly, La La Land waltzed away with all 7 awards it was nominated for. Other winners included Aaron Taylor-Johnson for his skin-crawlingly creepy supporting role in Nocturnal Animals, Casey Affleck won the award for best performance by an actor in a drama for his role in Manchester by the Sea, and Zootopia took home the award for best animated feature film.

Below is the full list of film award winners.

Best motion picture – Drama

Winner: Moonlight

Hacksaw Ridge

Hell or High Water

Lion

Manchester by the Sea

Best motion picture – Comedy or Musical

Winner: La La Land

20th Century Women

Deadpool

Florence Foster Jenkins

Sing Street

Best performance by an actor in a motion picture – Drama

Winner: Casey Affleck – Manchester by the Sea

Joel Edgerton – Loving

Andrew Garfield – Hacksaw Ridge

Viggo Mortensen – Captain Fantastic

Denzel Washington – Fences

Best performance by an actress in a motion picture – Drama

Winner: Isabelle Huppert – Elle

Amy Adams – Arrival

Jessica Chastain – Miss Sloane

Ruth Negga – Loving

Natalie Portman – Jackie

Best performance by an actor in a motion picture – Comedy or Musical

Winner: Ryan Gosling – La La Land

Colin Farrell – The Lobster

Hugh Grant – Florence Foster Jenkins

Jonah Hill – War Dogs

Ryan Reynolds – Deadpool

Best performance by an actress in a motion picture – Comedy or Musical

Winner: Emma Stone – La La Land

Annette Bening – 20th Century Women

Lily Collins – Rules Don’t Apply

Hailee Steinfeld – The Edge of Seventeen

Meryl Streep – Florence Foster Jenkins

Best performance by an actor in a supporting role in a motion picture

Winner: Aaron Taylor-Johnson – Nocturnal Animals

Mahershala Ali – Moonlight

Jeff Bridges – Hell or High Water

Simon Helberg – Florence Foster Jenkins

Dev Patel – Lion

Best performance by an actress in a supporting role in a motion picture